Delay Startup Software

If you load to many applications during startup you might notice that this might delay the startup even further because of the system resources required to load the applications at the same time. A better way to deal with startup applications would be to load them in sequence instead ordered by level of priority.

Delayed Exec is a free software program to delay the execution of startup programs. It displays all applications that are started during system start including their title, command and the user.

Applications can be moved into the delayed startup applications table where they will be executed in order using the delay interval specified by the user. The delay interval is set in milliseconds, the default being 15000.

The startup software is compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5. An alternative to Delayed Exec is Startup Delayer which does not require the Microsoft .net Framework.

Update: Delayed Exec is no longer available. We have removed the link from the article and suggest you use Startup Delayer now.

Update 2: Startup Delayer is now available as a free standard edition and a premium version that needs to be purchased. The premium version on top of the features that the free standard version provides offers backup and restoration options, startup profiles, an ad free interface and the conversion of tasks to startup applications.

Windows Vista and newer users can configure services to start delayed in the operating system. While that does not include programs, it may be good to know that this is possible. It may still make sense to run Startup Delayer to speed up the system start of the operating system by delaying select applications from running directly on system start.

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About Martin Brinkmann

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook, Twitter or Google+

Although I have no real experience to draw from here I can’t help but think how linux used to take minutes to start up because it loaded things up in sequence, they sped the whole thing up by loading things up symmetrically, or at least that how I understand it.

Well you won’t see a difference, or much of it, if you have a fast hard disk and few startup items. Putting them in sequence might help though, think of backup utilities or scanners that start a scan once they are loaded.

I have discovered one value for this type of application that is not mentioned (and is the reason I use Startup Delayer).

I am running WinXP SP3 and have 32 processes showing in the tray area right now.

XP (at least; unsure of Vista since I don’t run it) has a long standing bug where icons in the tray don’t always show up after a reboot. The application tied to the icon IS running in the system but the tray icon does not display in the tray. So there is no way to access or control the related application.

The only 2 ways that I have found to solve this problem is to either logoff/logon the user account AFTER a full reboot when you have missing icons (a big waste of time) or run a startup delayer to ensure that everything starts sequentially.

The one problem with delayer apps is that you have to guess how much time to wait between each one before starting the next one. This is determined via experimentation.

It would be nice if applications could send out a signal when they have fully initialized but I don’t think such a construct exists in Windows applications, so you are left to guess time spreads.

Startup Delayer is garbage, and I’m tired of idiots who are too stupid to realize that simple fact. It took me 10 minutes to find several egregious bugs–a pattern that has been repeated several times over the past several years, every time I’ve tried that crapware.

About gHacks

Ghacks is a technology news blog that was founded in 2005 by Martin Brinkmann. It has since then become one of the most popular tech news sites on the Internet with five authors and regular contributions from freelance writers.